Okay gang, math puzzle time!  Sharpen those pencils and those wits!

How many phone books would it take to stuff a pillow, if you cut up
every page of each phone book into one inch squares.

52 responses total.

The same number it would take if they weren't cut up into one inch squares.

Depends how dense you wanted the pillow. 
In any case, it wouldn't be a hell of a comfortable pillow.

It's debatable whether the result should be termed a pillow
if you didn't cut them up.  Unless, perhaps, you are into blocky sorts
of pillows composed of shifting rectangular parallelopipeds.  In
any case, you've identified an invariant property of the solution,
and that's progress.  Nice work!

Good responses so far.  You're getting warm.  Keep those wits and
pencils sharp!

What are the dimensions of the pillow?

If you shredded the paper into virtually paper fuzz, you could fill 
many pillows from one phonebook, and they would be fluffy.
The shredding tactic is what is used to make toilet paper "softer", in 
a lot of cases. They shred it a little, and it fluffs up. If you shake
the fluffy toilet papers (before using), little bits of paper will form
a cloud.

 A White Cloud, no doubt.

Re #4:  GOOD QUESTION!

Keep up the good work!

Well, hell, what are the dimensions of the phone book?
Is it one of the newfangled scenic skinnier phone books, or the 
oldfangled Ameritech monsters.

Good question!  You're getting warmer.

Okay, by putting the hints together, I would say that it depends on the
size of the pillow and the size of the phone book.  New York or LA book
would fill just about anything except a giant pillow, while Moscow, MI
would, maybe, do a Barbie Doll siz pillow.

Congrats to Glenda!!  She got the correct answer, which is:

        IT DEPENDS.

Good puzzle-solving, all!

I don't know whether to laugh or choke you.  :)

        You'd probably win any pillow fight you entered as well.

        I'd say the answer, "It depends", is lacking in something.  It
implies that there's only one variable, which isn't true.  It depends on
the size of the pillow case, and whether it has any holes greater than 1
inch.  It depends on how quickly a hole develops, on how many holes
develop, and how quickly they grow.  It depends on the composition of the
pillowcase.  If it's stainless steel, for example, it wouldn't take as long
to fill it as if it were made of silk.  And if it's made of plutonium, or
kryptonite, it depends on who you are, whether you can fill it at all.
        It depends on the form, as well...  if it's a Klein bottle pillow,
you can't fill it.  Unless you're God, or M. C. Escher. 
        Not to mention the composition of the phone book.  Make it floppy
disks, or bubble memory chips, and it takes more or less phone books,
depending.
        Naturally, no one will suggest the possibility of using only the 'Z'
pages, or not using the yellow pages, or the covers.
        The answer, 'it depends', is not as useful as it could be; once
you've decided what it depends on, you've opened up so many other
possibilities to consider.
        I suggest that this question cannot be answered at all, as there are
an infinite number of points to consider before you proceed to the
definitive answer.

Okay, let's consider them one by eon.

That would depend.

   John, how does "it depends" imply only one variable?  I agree what you
said, saying it depends does open up lots of possibilities, which is the
whole problem.
   It all depends...

It's not a problem; it's a solution!  (And who's this "John" person?)

   *I* know that, or at least I think I do; its jep I'm takin to.

Depends! For those let yourself go days.

Ah, the soul of a student spry.

Would it matter?
Why would anyone want to sleep on phone
books in the first place?

Besides that, I think the answer is 0.
Marston didn't ask us to stuff the pillow
case, he asked us to stuff the pillow,
which I'll assume is already stuffed
with whatever they use to stuff pillows.
(I don't think it's shredded phone
books, in any case.)

Great cast, lousy plot.

Actually, it wouldn't matter how many phone books you have to
stuff the pillow.  Phone books don't have arms or legs.  How could
they open the pillow?  How could they keep it from running away?

If the phone books stuff the pillow, with what would they stuff it,
crabmeat?

What would you do after you stuffed the pillow with phone books anyway, sell
them?

Soak them in gasoline, then sell 'em mail order as sure-fire campfire
starters.

I actually need to look something up in that phone book.  Are
we to now obtain necessary telephone numbers through osmosis in
our sleep?

You should removed any phone numbers that you'll need and store them in a
safe place *before* soaking the phone book in gasoline.  It's kinda like
keeping your favorite wad of chewing gum in your ear at night so that you
don't swallow it in your sleep.

what's a phone book?
what's a phone?
<lee has another telnet window opened to write e-mail>

This cannot hold a candle to my four windows -- one for email,
one for usenet, one for web browsing, one for grex.

<i remembers meg at DSC telling mju that he'd go blind doing four terminal
windows at once on a 14" monitor>

Well now I'm grexing via the web so I can't read news (dejanews) at the 
same time.

But I have my e-mail window opened.

I don't have my window open... I live in the basement, an d therefore there
are no windows to be opened. 

For that matter, my door isn't open either. For there was no door to bef found
either... the standard method of entry is through a window.

I'd need a shovel to get into my basement.  Though a jackhammer would 
really help those first few inches...

My basement's just fine; it's my attic I'm worried about.

What's a basement?

Physically, a basement is a cross between an attached garage and an indoor
swimming pool.  Judged either way, it tends to perform quite poorly.
Spiritually, a basement is a domestic analog of hell/hades/the underworld/
whatever-you-call-it.  In this capacity, it has perserved uncounted 
marriages far longer than mere rational observers would believe possible.

What he said, only dustier and with worse lighting.

Don't forget the exciting and exotic natives with various numbers of legs.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss